Women's World Cup 2014

robbiezero

feargale wrote: »

Not to a minnow nation it's not. If, say, Costa Rica had qualified for the FIFA third place match, do you seriously believe they wouldn't have gone for it? Third best in the world is no small potatoes.

We are hardly a minnow nation or in any way comparable to Costa Rica. We are Grand Slam champions from 2 years ago and would have been one of the at least top 6 sides at this world cup, but I take the point we are playing for our highest ever placing so it is worth while. If it was England or NZ, playing for 3rd place would be largely worthless.

Stheno

Good luck to the ladies this afternoon

On TG4 for anyone interested, not sure it's on sky sports.

Big attendance in the stadium

irishbucsfan

A little frustrating so far, a bit shakey in the set piece and they're overcommitting to the breakdown in possession.

irishbucsfan

Beaut from Davitt. Hopefully they can build on that in the 2nd half. Starting to look a bit more comfortable in possession.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Going in ahead at ht is something to be happy about.

Stheno

Lovely try to end the half

phog

Our scrum is under pressure and lineout a tad shaky but other than that very happy with Ireland's performance.

Stheno

Very scrappy second half

sullivlo

Stheno wrote: »

Very crappy second half

FYP

They look tired.

Stheno

sullivlo wrote: »

FYP

They look tired.

Lol I did get to see my cousin on the telly in the audience

Two points in it for France

The french number 3 and 5 are tanks!

thirteen.

Score?

Stheno

thirteen. wrote: »

Score?

20-18

Hippo

Frustrating amount of unforced errors. They must be knackered.

sullivlo

Despite the fact that it's now likely that Ireland will come 4th, I'm still massively impressed with their tournament.

And I think this will be the match of the day as I suspect England will have too much for Canada.

Stheno

Still a great achievement to get as far as they have.

Where were they ranked in the world prior to this?

DellyBelly

Just not good enough I'm afraid. We have too many passengers to be world champions. Hopefully this will inspire more young girls to take up rugby and wededevelop better players for the. Future tournaments

The Lost Sheep

DellyBelly wrote: »

Just not good enough I'm afraid. We have too many passengers to be world champions. Hopefully this will inspire more young girls to take up rugby and wededevelop better players for the. Future tournaments

That's a slight bit harsh. To even reach semi finals is fantastic considering where we've came from. It hopefully will see more take up the sport and my own club has already seen an increase in players part in thanks to the world cup with 4/5 new players picking up sport in last few weeks

Stheno wrote: »

Still a great achievement to get as far as they have.

Where were they ranked in the world prior to this?

They were 7th on basis of the last world cup. World rankings not updated in women's game like the mens. They'll be ranked 4th now and that's fair on basis of successes of this tournament and last few seasons of improvement

phog

DellyBelly wrote: »

Just not good enough I'm afraid. We have too many passengers to be world champions. Hopefully this will inspire more young girls to take up rugby and wededevelop better players for the. Future tournaments

Too many passengers? This team have taken us to heights yet to be experienced with our men's team and they've been playing international rugby since the 1800" s

Edited to say - I'm immensely proud of their performances in the WC

Stheno

Rooting for Canada now

bridgetown1

my daughter palys with UCC and LOVES it. But Irish Womens Rugby needs more layers. Remember it is the people training hard with the third team who keep the 2nd team on their toes, and it is the 2nd team players pushing hard that drive the 1st team on.

P_1

In fairness it was always going to be tough to maintain the peak after the New Zealand result.

DonnellysArm

P_1 wrote: »

In fairness it was always going to be tough to maintain the peak after the New Zealand result.

Its a pity that they weren’t able to maintain that level of performance throughout the tournament. However I am not surprised. We have seen it before with the men and the u20 teams and even the natonal soccer team at world championships. Each team won a match that everybody kept talking about and which gave us all hope that they could finally reach a semi final. How come we cant take the next step? Are we physically not up to scratch or do we need to get mentally stronger? Do we have correct recovery strategies in place? Provincial teams can win big games on a trot and we can also do it in 6n championships. What is it with world championships?

Stevecw

That try means it's Englands World Cup

Swiwi.

Pity Leinster didn't sign Emily Scarratt - seems the perfect replacement for BOD, and the big bruiser that MOC likes. Ladies first, men in 12 months time for England...?

koura

Great to watch England and Canada playing Rugby on TG4.

Teferi

Not a bad game, Canada chased it for too long. They stayed within reach for the vast majority of the game but I don't think that the result was ever really going to be anything else. Congrats to England! Proud of our performance too, hopefully it will drive Ladies rugby on in the country.

Henry Ford III

Best team won the tournament imho. England had standout players at 4,7, 9, 10 and 13

Ed_Stephens

Really enjoyed the game unfortunately for Canada they'd too many handling errors. That Magali Harvey is some player, the fact that she's gorgeous doesn't do her any harm either. Sorry if that seems sexist but women have been ogling male players for years now!

Stevecw

Decent standard overall, great to see Ireland do so well. Good to see Canada reach the final too, hopefully they can kick on in the mens game too. Agree about that Magali Harvey, she is quality!

OnTheCouch

I actually got quite into the final, I wasn't intending to watch it after the Ireland game had finished.

The initial impression was that England were just going to steamroll Canada, thought it could be another rout. The English side looked a lot more powerful physically in addition.

But the Canadians never gave up and perhaps the crucial point in the match came when Canada had got within two points and immediately conceded a penalty from the restart. Prior to this you could see England visibly feeling the pressure and losing confidence each time the Canadians kicked a penalty. I think this was a real turning point.

I also wondered why Canada ran the ball at every opportunity. Even though this certainly enhanced the level of entertainment for the spectators, you wondered should they have gone for a couple of tactical kicks now and again just to mix it up a bit?

Even though I wasn't supporting them, I think England were probably the tournament's best team and of course it would have been harsh to see them lose four finals in a row.

pickarooney

Has anyone tried that outside of the foot kicking style that Harvey uses? I can't kick the ball ten metres that way.

Ed_Stephens

Apparently Magali has a soccer background so it's lent itself to kicking in that style rather than the traditional rugby style. So good to see a player playing with a smile on her face too, showing that women can participate in rugby and enjoy it without having to pump too much macho aggression into the game. Not saying that the game wasn't intense but maybe just not so full of testosterone which was a good thing!